The Hartland and Brighton boys tennis teams opened up KLAA West play on Tuesday afternoon. Perhaps even more notable than the Bulldogs' 8-1 victory, however, was that for the first time in 36 years, the Eagles were without Judy Jagdfeld in a league dual.

The long-tenured Hartland tennis coach announced her retirement in the summer, opening the door for Chuck Volland to move up from coaching the junior varsity squad — a position he had held for the past two years — to varsity.

Navigating back and forth through the maze of tennis cages behind Brighton High School certainly wasn't new for Volland — he's been coaching tennis for more than 40 years — but even he had to admit there was a different vibe without Jagdfeld around.

"She was always a breath of fresh air, always real position and very energetic," Volland said of his predecessor. "The kids loved her, and she did a great job with the program. I'm happy to take it over. She left me in good hands."

It was strange for Brighton coach Jeff Miner, too.

Miner has coached tennis for 33 years and for each of the years he was at Brighton, Jagdfeld was at the helm in Hartland. When she departed, Miner took over her title as the division's longest-tenured coach.

"The different thing was not having Judy here," Miner said. "I was standing next to Chuck and I said, 'It's really weird to see a Hartland coach that's taller than me.'"

Of course, Miner let out a laugh following the sentence, and then continued to praise the work Jagdfeld did with the Eagles. As someone who's also been coaching for more than 30 years, he knows the commitment involved.

"She was 72 when she quit, so that's a lot of hours away from the family and a lot of time spent," Miner said.

"That is pretty dedicated," Volland agreed. "She coached over 70 teams and got a lot of good memories and a lot of good students that appreciate learning the sport from her."

Senior captain Ryan Curtis — the Eagles' one-singles player — was among the many to be trained by Jagdfeld at the high school level. He took the court Tuesday against Brighton's Erik Schellenberg and although he lost in consecutive sets, 6-2, 6-2, he felt the team was making some progress under its new coach.

"We just need to be more aggressive early on and be relaxed," Curtis said. "(If we do that) I think we'll be able to pull a few matches out."

At three-singles, Hartland's Andy Auvenshire lost to Brighton's Alek Anuzis, while Eagles senior and four-singles entrant Chris Mizuno also fell to the Bulldogs' Ryan Andrews.

Brighton proceeded to sweep the doubles matches, highlighted by Zach Kupa and Joey Valenti dropping Austin Miller and Corey Haskins of Hartland, 6-0 and 6-0. Five-doubles also saw a near sweep with Brighton's Kevin Letter and Kyle Davis winning, 6-1 and 6-0 over Lane Kempf and Mark Robinson.

Max Drake and Dylan Steflicki played the closest match of the day at one-doubles, the two edging out Nick Daniels and Calvin Bontekoe, 5-7, 6-4, 6-1, in three sets. Bulldogs' three-doubles team of Matt Fannin and Ryan Misiak also took care of business again Mason Cothran and Max Cothran of Hartland, defeating the Eagles duo, 6-2 an 6-4.

Emery Pollack and Will Robinson also scored a win for Brighton.

"I thought our guys played well today," Miner said. "It was nice to get the conference season off to a good start with a win. We've been seeing Novi … and teams like that. So coming against Hartland, we wee able to get a win, and it's good for our guys' confidence."